Proceedings Paper

The Wright-Patterson USAF Medical Center (WPMC) is one of three DOD medical centers currently engaged in the installation of the ''Medical Diagnostic Imaging Support'' (MDIS) system. MDIS is a comprehensive hospital wide ''Picture Archiving and Communications System'' (PACS). In defining the requirements for the MDIS system it quickly became apparent that detailed operational information was necessary to adequately define the system requirements. This information included an understanding of the needs of our customers, workload data, current and expected future imaging capabilities, current problems encountered in meeting the needs of our customers, and the resources available to respond to these problems. Armed with this information the MDIS technical development team was able to define a detailed functional description for the MDIS system. This functional description was presented to industry in the form of a competitive solicitation with the subsequent submission of proposals by interested vendors. Following an extensive review of these proposals and the results of live benchmark evaluations, a contract was awarded to Loral Western Development Laboratory on September 27, 1991. This paper presents an operational overview of WPMC, a description of the deficiencies in our current image management system, and a discussion of the PACS to be installed this summer.